I want to protect you and your loved ones from becoming victims of crimes by the catholic church and all abusers of human beings. I want to give survivors of sexual and physical abuse a voice to be heard all over the world. All abuse of children and adults by religious groups and by any organization or individual must be stopped. We can add our voices to a growing, worldwide community of people who want truth and justice. Please share your experiences with me and others on this blog.

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Saturday, September 28, 2013

Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) defended a pedophile priest just as Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger) did before him

Julio
César Grassi is a priest convicted four years ago of molesting a 13-year-old
boy in the late 1990s. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail. But until this
week he was free. Why?Because Pope
Francis, the then cardinal Bergoglio headed up the Argentine bishops’
conference who secretly lobbied judges to allow Grassi to stay free while he
appealed his conviction. Francis and his group said Grassi should go free and
tried to discredit the victims.

Grassi founded Fundacion Felices los
Niños (the Happy Children Foundation) in 1993, to rescue street children.
The foundation cared for 6,300 children in 17 homes across Argentina from 1993
to 2002. Grassi did the opposite of caring for the children – he used the
foundation to molest and rape them.

Grassi’s trial lasted for nine months, with
testimony from 130 witnesses. He was found guilty of two acts of
aggravated sexual assault and corruption of minors in the case of “Gabriel.” He
was acquitted of 15 other counts of abuse of two other boys. Why was Grassi acquitted of so many counts of
abuse? Right after he was found guilty in June 2009, Frances/Bergoglio approved
the hiring of a leading criminal defense lawyer and legal scholar, Marcelo
Sancinetti, and secretly authorized an extensive examination of Grassi’s
prosecution.

Sancinetti’s report strongly stated Grassi’s
innocence and denied that there was child sexual abuse. The report went to
judges who had not yet given their decisions in the case. It dismissed
accusations against two of the victims and attacked the credibility of
“Gabriel,” of whose abuse Grassi was convicted. The existence of this
investigation and report commissioned by the bishops and Francis/Bergoglio was revealed
in December 2011 by Juan Pablo Gallego, an attorney for the Committee for
Oversight and Implementation of International Conventions for Children’s
Rights, who had represented the victims at the trial. Gallego called the study
a "scandalous instance of lobbying and exerting pressure on the
Court" and accused the bishops of "further hindering a process that
has outrageously granted the condemned priest a situation of almost unthinkable
freedom."

Throughout the trial, Grassi said he was
backed by many bishops, especially Francis/Bergoglio. Grassi said of Bergoglio
that he “never let go of my hand [and] is always at my side.” Pope Francis
has, for a long time, been a public supporter of the Happy Children Foundation,
but he said little to defend Grassi publicly after his arrest. In a 2006
interview with Veintitres
magazine, Bergoglio said that "justice will determine" Grassi's
innocence, although "there is a media campaign against him, a
condemnation in the media."As
usual, when the news is good, the Vatican praises the reporters. When they
write something unfavorable they have a campaign against the pope

In 2010, the Criminal Appeals Court of Buenos
Aires denied Grassi’s first appeal but again the local court ruled that he
could remain free.Although the
prosecutor and victims’ attorneys tried to have Grassi detained, they were
rejected twice in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, Grassi’s bishop Luis Eichhorn asked
the court if Grassi could live a house with a swimming pool and large park, on
the same block as the Happy Children headquarters, where Grassi had assaulted
Gabriel. The Court granted Bishop Eichhorn's request.

Early in 2013, the Criminal Court ruled that
Grassi had violated conditions of his freedom by mentioning one of his victims
in a TV interview. Grassi’s lawyers again appealed and finally, (September 19,
2013), the Supreme Court of Buenos Aires rejected Grassi's appeal and ratified
his 15-year sentence. On September 23, 2013, the Criminal Court ordered
that Grassi immediately go to prison to begin serving his sentence. It had
taken 11 years after his arrest and four years after his conviction for him to
start serving his term but he is still a catholic priest. Francis hasn’t
changed that.

According to BishopAccountability.org
who documents the crisis of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church with more
than 100,000 pages of church records, legal documents, and media reports it is
disturbing that Francis lobbied for Grassi so recently (in 2009 and 2010).

Like
BishopAccountability who summarized the case we are also wondering why Francis
has talked publically about financial corruption in the church and the “poor
and needy” but says nothing about the cover-up of clergy sex offenders by bishops
and the suffering of the abused children. Like all the popes before him for
2000 years, will he continue to ignore the global issue of sexual abuse of
children perpetrated by his priests and nuns?

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About Me

When I was three and a half years old, I and my five year
old brother Frankie were raped by a catholic priest and put in St. Agnes Home and School in Sparkill, NY. I was beaten every day and then smothered by a catholic
nun. I didn't die but I was in a coma for almost year, leaving me brain damaged. After we got out, my
brother killed himself because he couldn't help me or accept the abuse we received. I want everyone to know
about the brutality and crime then and still going on in the catholic church. I want to stop
the crimes the church commits against our children and us and get justice for the victims. Give me your ideas
so that we all succeed in making this world safer for our children.